CLASS I. MAMMALIA: ORDER 2. QUADRUMANA. 



113 



Nature, in a sunny wood, 

 Must have been in merry mood, 

 And with laughter fit to burst, 

 Monkey — when she made thee first. 



" How you leaped and frisked about 

 When your life you first found out 1 

 How you threw, in roguish mirth, 

 Cocoa-nuts on mother earth 1 



" How you sat and made a din, 

 Louder than had ever been — ■ 

 Till the parrots, all a-riot, 

 Chattered, too, to keep you quiet ! 



" How the world's first children ran 

 Laughing from the monkey-man ! — 

 Little Abel and his brother, 

 Laughing, shouting to their mother. 



" And could you keep down your mirth 

 When the floods were on the earth? 

 When, from all your drowning kin, 

 Good old Noah took you in ? 



'■ In the very ark, no doubt, 

 You went frolicking about ; 

 Never keeping in your mind 

 Drowned monkeys left behind." 





After all, what could we do without the monkeys ? How much of our pleasant literature would 

 perish if they were to be struck out of existence ! Certainly they are the heroes of many of the 

 best fables of Lafontaine, and other moralists of his school. Who has not been instructed and 

 amused by Trumbull's epigrammatic story of the monkey who, having lathered himself in imita- 

 tion of his master — 



"Drew razor swift as he could pull it, 

 And cut from ear to ear his gullet !" 



The following is an example of a graver satire, for which we are indebted to the monkeys : 



"A traveler in Africa was one day astonished to observe a vast procession of monkeys marching 

 over a plain, with countenances indicative of the deepest sorrow. There was the little frisky green 

 monkey — but his countenance was grave and woe-begone ; there was the red monkey, and the 

 baboon, and the chimpanzee, and all seemed full of grief, as if some great calamity had befallen 

 them. Instead of the leaps, and frolics, and grimaces usually seen among this four-handed family, 

 they marched forward with long and regular steps, to a grave and solemn tune, sung by a choir of 

 appointed howlers. 



" After marching a considerable distance, the vast procession, consisting of many thousands, 

 approached a low mound of earth. Here the head of the train halted, and the rest came up and 

 arranged themselves around the mound. Then the whole troop set up a most piteous wail ; then 

 some of them began to dig into the mound of earth, and pretty soon they disclosed the half- 

 decayed skeleton of a monkey. This was raised upon an altar, and then all the monkeys bowed 

 down to the bones, and paid them reverence. Then one of the most noted of the monkeys, a 

 famous lawyer among them, stood up and made an eloquent address. The monkeys, apes, and 

 baboons sobbed, and sighed, and howled, as the orator proceeded. At length he finished with a 

 pathetic and sublime flourish, and the congregation shed tears, and wiped their eyes, and then 

 they laid the bones in the ground again, and then they heaped up the earth over it to a vast 

 height ; and they reared a monument upon it, with an inscription setting forth the virtues and 

 services of the dead monkey, and then they all went away. 



"After the multitude had dispersed, the traveler went to the orator, and asked him what all 

 this meant : whereupon he said, that it was the custom with the monkeys, when any one rose up 

 among them of supreme sagacity, or superior excellence, to envy and hate him — to persecute him 

 and to put him to death ; but after many years they always dug up the decayed bones and wor- 

 shiped them, to testify their gratitude and repair their injustice, by honoring the memory of the 

 monkey they had reviled while living. 



"This sounded so ridiculous to the traveler that he laughed outright ; but he was soon rebuked 

 by the monkey, who spoke gravely as follows : ' Your mirth, sir traveler, is ill timed, and shows a 

 want of due reflection. "We monkeys are great imitators, and in this matter we do but follow the 

 fashion of our betters. Some monkeys have traveled as well as you, sir, and they tell us mankind 

 usually revile those who are remarkable for goodness or greatness while they are living, and often 

 bring them to a premature grave, either by persecution or neglect ; but afterward, when their 

 bones are decayed, they make up for their folly and injustice by paying great honor to their 

 memory, digging up their remains, singing hymns, delivering orations, and erecting monuments 

 over their ashes !' ' v 



Vol. I.— 15 



